The US is about to experience one of its biggest social and economic changes in generations.

And the story of Desert Hot Springs, California, is the key to understanding it all…

Like many US cities, Desert Hot Springs had chronic financial problems. The city filed for Chapter 9 municipal bankruptcy in 2001. Then it nearly went bankrupt again in 2014, when it declared a fiscal emergency.

At this point, the city’s people were desperate to solve their intractable financial troubles. So they opened their minds to a new idea.

They voted to become the first place in California to allow indoor cannabis cultivation on an industrial scale. A full 70% were in favor.

The city would, of course, tax these operations.

Local politicians had nixed the idea before. But the risk of two bankruptcies in 15 years changed their minds. Necessity has a way of doing that.

This once-dying city of 29,000 people—the forgotten neighbor of storied Palm Springs—is now experiencing a renaissance.

Since the vote, it’s issued permits to more than 30 growers for over 3 million square feet of cannabis cultivation.

It’s only a matter of time before other states do the same. And eventually the US federal government will as well.

The economic benefits of legalization are simply too good to pass up.

It’s absurd, but the US federal government still classifies marijuana as a Schedule 1 drug. In other words, the feds put marijuana in the same category as heroin and LSD—and they consider it more dangerous than cocaine or meth.

But this ridiculous policy probably won’t last much longer.

Of course, you might be worried that the Trump administration will shut down the legal cannabis industry—along with your chance to profit from it.

And there’s good reason to be cautious. After all, Trump’s attorney general did call marijuana “slightly less awful” than heroin.

Comments like this have stopped many people from investing in marijuana. But consider the bigger political picture.

First, the industry is too big to shut down. There’s simply too much money and too many jobs at stake. The backlash would be overwhelming.

Second, states’ rights matter to Trump voters. Cracking down on the industry would alienate the people who put him in office.

Attacking the US marijuana industry would cost Trump a lot more than it’s politically worth. It wouldn’t make any sense to do it.

This Pointless War Is Almost Over

Casey Research founder Doug Casey and I (Nick Giambruno) are professional crisis investors. We spend a lot of time flying around the world, chasing turmoil and the profitable opportunities it creates. That’s why we frequently wind up in obscure and violent places like Zimbabwe, Kazakhstan, or even Haiti.

We usually find the best fortune-building investments for our subscribers in these far-off countries. But right now, the legal marijuana market is handing us incredible opportunities in California and Colorado.

At first, marijuana stocks might not seem like a classic crisis investment. The industry isn’t coming out of a brutal bear market or downturn.

Instead, it’s in the early innings of a mega bull market.

However, crisis investing is also about taking advantage of politically caused distortions in the marketplace. And it’s about profiting from aberrations of mass psychology. This is what we’re doing with the legal marijuana market.

The reality is, this market has been in one long crisis since the ’30s, when the US government prohibited it at the federal level. Then President Nixon accelerated the crisis by starting the “War on Drugs” in the 1970s.

This pointless war has killed an untold number of people. It’s put millions of non-violent offenders behind bars. It’s even ravaged entire countries, like Mexico and Colombia.

Thankfully, this bloody war is almost over.

Right now, leaders around the world are rethinking marijuana prohibition. Many longtime “drug warriors” are even changing their tune.

Prohibition is an unsustainable distortion in the cannabis market—a distortion that we’re taking advantage of to make massive profits.

Regards,

Nick Giambruno
Editor, Crisis Investing

P.S. On January 10 at 8 p.m. ET, I’ll be hosting a free webinar with legendary speculator Doug Casey that shows you how to join the party for the “second” marijuana boom. We’re calling this event the Marijuana Millionaire Summit.

During the summit, we’ll share details on how anyone can position themselves into the future “Amazon” and “Home Depot” of the legal pot industry. Click here for more details.

Reader Mailbag

Everything I have read from Doug Casey for last 5 years has been brilliant and insightful until his stance on Bitcoin. Completely ludicrous, so much so with such compelling counterarguments to the standard 35-year-old hipster’s naive and desperate belief in Bitcoin, that I will not waste my energy articulating them.

Actually I’ll do one…the argument of limited supply and inability to be devalued by printing more units is somewhat difficult reconcile to the tally of 1,200+ cryptocurrencies and 200 launched in 2017 alone. DC knows full well Bitcoin will become Crapcoin it will end up at around $100 but between now and then it could do anything.

If DC has run out of ideas for investing then just sit and wait; this is what all the great investors do. Very disappointing from somebody so smart.